Derisive term for unattractive public sculptures / FRI 2-6-26 / Classic mixed drink developed in Singapore / "Hearts are ___ for the breakin'" (Taylor Swift lyric) / Dwelling that epitomizes simple living / Phenomenon through which luxuries become necessities / Home improvement site, after a 2021 rebranding / Simone Biles or Tom Brady, acronymically / Stage name of South Korean rapper Park Jae-sang / Finishes a season, say

Constructor: Geoffrey Schorkopf and Rafael Musa

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: none 

Word of the Day: TINY HOME (35D: Dwelling that epitomizes simple living) —

The tiny-house movement (also known as the small house movement) is an architectural and social movement promoting the reduction and simplification of living spaces. Tiny homes have been promoted as offering lower-cost and sometimes eco-friendly features within the housing market, and they have also been promoted a housing option for homeless individuals.However, the lack of clearly defined features and legality in many cases can cause issues for ownership, including being more expensive for the amount of area, vulnerability to natural disaster, lack of storage, difficulty hosting, smaller or lacking traditional home appliances, and legal and or zoning issues.

There is some variation in defining a tiny home, but there are examples and they are usually based on floorspace. However, tiny homes do not have clearly defined features and may be mobile and may or may not have traditional home features. One definition, according to the International Residential Code, a tiny house's floorspace is no larger than 400 square feet (37 m²). In common language a tiny house and related movement can be larger than 400 ft² and Merriam-Webster says they can be up to 500 ft² . One architectural firm used a threshold of 600 ft² to define a tiny home. (wikipedia)

• • •

There's lots to like in this, but there is a largeish rectangular patch in the NW that ended up being both ugly and alien to me. And hard. Harder than the rest, anyway. The rectangle is bordered on the south by HARD HAT (32A: Mason, e.g.) and on the east by GIN SLING (8D: Classic mixed drink developed in Singapore). Actually, it's half that rectangle. It's more of a triangle, with the three points being the "H" in HARD HAT and the "G"s at the front and back of GIN SLING. Everything inside that triangle (roughly) was a (tiny) nightmare for me. The epicenter of the nightmare was the completely off-putting (and completely unknown to me) PLOP ART (7D: Derisive term for unattractive public sculptures). It's like a bird shit all over the puzzle. At least, I'm assuming that's what the "plop" part of PLOP ART refers to, right? Bird shit? Don't birds shit on all public art, not just the sculptures you think are "unattractive?" I get that it's playing on the term "pop art," but the shittiness of "plop" is ICK on every level. [wikipedia says that the "plop" part refers to sculpture that seems to have been "plopped" thoughtlessly where it lies, but wikipedia also says the term PLOP ART "holds connotations to excrement"]. I was left wondering what horrid, rotting wordlist that answer crawled out from under. 

That second "P" in PLOP ART took forever, because ...  well, primarily because of WRAPS (20A: Finishes a season). I had no idea what sense of "finishes" (or "season") the clue wanted, and was getting no help from 1, 2, 3 of the crosses. PLOP ART, obvs, no help. Then there's the "Taylor Swift lyric." God knows I have been more than accommodating to the general enSwiftification of the puzzle over the past decade or so, but you're not even giving me the song titles now? Just ... "Taylor Swift lyric?" Are hearts HERE for the breakin'? HELD for the breakin'? I don't know. In retrospect, HERS seems obvious, but while solving, no, that was not the case. The last answer keeping WRAPS from going in was GPS WATCH. I had the GPS, but ... I didn't even know GPS WATCH was a thing, so I was stuck. I also don't really get what "word play" is supposed to be happening in the clue (5D: What gives you the time and place?). Is that just a straightforward question? I've heard people say "name the time and place" or something like that, but the phrasing here evokes nothing very clear. So, yeah, now that I've written this out, the real killer for me in the NW was WRAPS—an answer I'm not actually mad at at all. But its vagueness made GPS WATCH, HERS, and PLOP ART (none of them appealing to me) tough for me to come up with.

GIN SLING was easy but clanked a bit in my ears. I know the SINGAPORE SLING. In fact, that's the only way I got SLING—by inferring it from the "Singapore" in the clue. SINGAPORE SLING would be a great answer. GIN SLING ... fine, but less great. As for HARD HAT, somehow in my head a "Mason" is either really old-timey (laying bricks and mortar with a trowel in, like, Dickensian times) or else belongs to a secret society. I don't picture him (or her, but in my mind's eye, def him) with a HARD HAT at all, and then there's the fact that I haven't heard a person referred to as a HARD HAT in I don't know how long. But yeah, def. 1b. at merriam-webster dot com = "construction worker." Anyway, getting from the clue to the answer there, rough for me. Once I exit that HARD HAT / GIN SLING Bermuda Triangle, though, things get a lot cleaner and more entertaining. IT'S A SMALL WORLD is solid, as is the bank of 8s it runs into (CONTRACT / TOTAL LIE  / STOP DEAD) (those last two aren't just solid, they're strong). I love the highs and lows of modern living represented by the crossing answers TINY HOME (35D: Dwelling that epitomizes simple living) and LIFESTYLE CREEP (49A: Phenomenon through which luxuries become necessities). Real yin/yang action there. "I don't need much" vs. "I need I need I need." Good stuff. BOSS BATTLE is boring and by now old (used four times already in the 2020s, including once just six weeks ago, by one of these same constructors (?!)), but "I'M SO SCARED" made me laugh (it could use and "ooh" on the front in order to be fully sarcastic, but I still like it). The SW corner is as solid as its NE counterpart. A real joy to move through about 3/4 of this puzzle. It's only the stuff ... emanating ... from PLOP ART that made me at all unhappy. 

Bullets:

• 59A: Home improvement site, after a 2021 rebranding (ANGI) — seen this before and am never gonna like it. Feels like the puzzle's doing PR work on this "rebranding." The site used to be "Angie's List." Now it's this awful adspeak / app-ified four-letter nightmare that evokes angina and angioplasty more than home improvement, imho. It's neo-crosswordese to me and I hate it.
• 56A: Simone Biles or Tom Brady, acronymically (G.O.A.T.) — Greatest Of All Time. I think it's weird to just state it as fact that the acronym applies. A "to some," is probably in order. This is esp. true with Tom Brady (I think Biles is pretty objectively the greatest to ever do it).

• 21D: Parliament constituent (OWL) — the collective term for OWLs is a "parliament." Because I studied Middle English literature in grad school, I knew Chaucer's poem Parlement of Foules (i.e. "Parliament of Fowls") before I ever knew the term "parliament" applied specifically to OWLs. Fun (and semi-timely) fact: Parlement of Foules is the likely origin of the association of St. Valentine's Day (Feb. 14) with lovers. 

The Parlement of Foules (modernized: Parliament of Fowls), also called the Parlement of Briddes (Parliament of Birds) or the Assemble of Foules (Assembly of Fowls), is a poem by Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1340s–1400) made up of approximately 700 lines. The poem, which is in the form of a dream vision in rhyme royal stanza, contains one of the earliest references to the idea that St. Valentine's Day is a special day for lovers.

Oruch's survey of the literature finds no association between Valentine and romance prior to Chaucer. He concludes that Chaucer is likely to be "the original mythmaker in this instance." (wikipedia) 

• 23D: Entered a bear market (SLID) — first thought: "Ew, why are you going to a bear market, why are they selling bears, what do you need a bear for, bears should be free!" Then I thought of the stock market. And wrote in SOLD.
• 44D: Stage name of South Korean rapper Park Jae-sang (PSY) — as far as I know, PSY is known in this country for precisely one song ("Gangnam Style"), which was indeed mmmmmaaaaaasssssssiiiiiiivvvvve ... in 2012. Since 2012, I have thought about PSY and that song only when crosswords have forced me to.

• 51D: Modern name of the first National League champions (1876) (CUBS) — in 1876 they were the White Stockings. When they became the CUBS (around the turn of the (20th) century), the name "White Stockings" was adopted by the new American League team on the South Side of Chicago—this team became the modern Chicago White Sox.

[37D: Bring three suitcases to a weekend trip, say]

That's all for today. See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld 

P.S. my bird-of-the-day calendar has entered the crossword chat

[OWLs … and they’re URAL (4)!]

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook and Letterboxd]
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Chick checker of a sort / THU 2-5-26 / Bible-inspired tourist attraction in Williamstown, Ky. / Levy that helped fund the Erie Canal / Meat stick brand / Racer's final go-round / Paragraph starter, perhaps / Prince Harry, per his memoir's title / Become acquainted via Gmail, say

Constructor: Dario Salvucci

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: ON THE ROAD (35A: Classic Jack Kerouac novel ... or where you'll find 17-, 24-, 49- and 58-Across) — theme clues are visual depictions (using keyboard characters) of things you might see on the road (i.e. while driving):

Theme answers:

17A: |$|$|$|$| (TOOLBOOTHS)

24A: | : : : | / / (FREEWAY EXIT)

49A: | : : :-| (LANE CLOSURE)

58A: |X:X:X:X| (TRAFFIC JAM)

     |X:X:X:X|
     |X:X:X:X|

Word of the Day: SPARE (10D: Prince Harry, per his memoir's title) —

Spare is a memoir by Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, which was released on 10 January 2023. It was ghostwritten by J. R. Moehringer and published by Penguin Random House. It is 416 pages long and available in digital, paperback, and hardcover formats and has been translated into fifteen languages. There is also a 15-hour audiobook edition, which Harry narrates.

The book was highly anticipated and was accompanied by several major broadcast interviews. The title refers to the aristocratic adage that an "heir and a spare" were needed to ensure that an inheritance remained in the family. In the book, Harry details his childhood and the profound effect of the death of his mother, Diana, Princess of Wales, as well as his teenage years, and subsequent deployment to Afghanistan with the British Army. He writes about his relationship with his older brother, Prince William, and his father, King Charles III, and his father's marriage to Queen Camilla, as well as his courtship and marriage to the American actress Meghan Markle and the couple's subsequent stepping back from their royal roles.

Spare received generally mixed reviews from critics, some who praised Harry's openness but were critical of the inclusion of too many personal details. According to Guinness World Records, Spare became "the fastest selling non-fiction book of all time" on the date of its release. (wikipedia)

• • •

Two big problems today. First, and worst, the fill, which had me getting mad at this puzzle early, and then often. Waded through a rough but passable NW corner only to hit SEXER at the bottom of that corner and then completely mentally check out (31A: Chick checker of a sort). OK, not completely, but ... yeesh. I haven't seen SEXER in 18 years but I haven't forgotten it. Once you learn that there is someone who is specially trained to pick up baby chicks, look quickly at their genital region (is that right?), and determine their sex so they can be sorted (for future consumption or egg-laying or whatever), you don't forget it. Seriously, it's some kind of really specialized skill. Large commercial hatcheries employ sexers to weed out the undesirable male chicks, which are mostly killed because they are "useless" (can't lay eggs). Fun. Anyway, I learned this "job" existed from crosswords a long time ago, and thought "what an awful and awful-looking word, must be some holdover from the pre-Shortz days, sure hope I never see it again." But 18 years later, here we are. And it turns out that SEXER is not, in fact, a holdover from the pre-Shortz days (when short fill tended to be much rougher). In fact, it debuted under Shortz, in 1997. It was debuted by ... my friend Matt Gaffney!?!?! OK, I am going to have to have words with him about that. Although ... it's almost thirty years ago, now, maybe I can let it go. But I can't let go seeing SEXER in a puzzle in 2026, not unless it's absolutely necessary to hold together an incredibly beautiful theme or something. This SEXER holds nothing beautiful together. It's a regular-ass grid, why do I have to go from OCALA (real place, but still total crosswordese) through SALT TAX (dull) and A COUPLE (🙁) only to end up at SEXER. And let me tell you, the puzzle probably still could've gotten me back on its side, still could've righted the ship, if the theme had been great or if the fill had improved, but none of those things happened. By the time I hit E-MEET (sigh) my soul basically left my body and went into the next room to read a book. 

[OCALA heat map (peaking in late '80s/early '90s before clearly tapering off starting in the 2010s)] [xwordinfo]

As for the theme, only TOLLBOOTHS made any visual sense to me as I was solving. The others ... there just wasn't enough visual context for me to see that I was supposed to be looking at four parallel lanes. I kept reading the clue as if they represented one lane, headed west to east (i.e. left to right). The colons just weren't registering as dotted-line lane dividers. As for TRAFFIC JAM, in my software, the clue represents those three rows of traffic as one line, so instead of a proper jam (three rows deep), you just get what looks like 12 lanes of traffic. The idea that an "X" was a car was hard enough to grasp. The "jam" part was lost on me completely. I just inferred that answer from crosses. I'm not opposed to the concept here, but it just isn't executed in a fully legible way. I have a suspicion that it's going to drive some solvers (esp. those w/ tired eyes, old eyes, or any kind of vision issues) crazy. My eyes are fine and I found it fussy and confusing. It was pretty easy, though, so maybe people will forgive this puzzle its infelicities. Success on a Thursday tends to give people strong feelings of goodwill.

There was one thing I really liked today, which was the clue on ALL CAPS (38D: Case of emergency?). Nice bending of "case" there. I'm struggling to find other things that elevated the puzzle above average, though, even briefly. The corners are all banks of 7s, and banking 7s rarely yields greatness. Hard to do a bank of 7s even without thematic pressure, but run themers in there and the best you can hope for is that the corner doesn't have to resort to any really ugly or awkward fill. All in all, I think those corners all hold up, at least in the longer answers, so that's something. But the glue of this puzzle is an avalanche of tired short fill. "A" is for Avalanche. "A" as in [deep breath] APSE AERO ALPO AMFM ADUE ADIN ALEE ASTO ABCS ACHE AIDS ALLY. And that's just the four-letter stuff. Twelve four-letter "A" answers. That's not gonna lead anywhere good. In addition to the unpleasantness of the SEXER helping send male chicks to a mass grave, there's the eternal grimness of TASE (15A: Give quite a shock), the absurd Creationist fantasy of an ARK in Kentucky (21A: Bible-inspired tourist attraction in Williamstown, Ky.), and the loneliness of the single SLIM JIM (43D: Meat stick brand). Is CAR FARE really a common thing for a "commuter" to pay (44D: Commuter's charge)? I think of commuters taking their own cars, or riding in car pools, or taking public transportation like subway, rail, bus, etc. Do people use CAR FARE to refer to payment for things like Uber? CAB FARE is a natural phrase to me. CAR FARE I've heard, but for "commuters," I really don't know. Seemed off. 

Bullets:

• 3D: Levy that helped fund the Erie Canal (SALT TAX) — Me: "... Eugene?" I had a weird double-levy moment in the NW corner, as LEVY was the first thing I wrote in for 20A: Charge on imports (DUTY).

[I miss you, Catherine O'Hara]

• 48A: Racer's final go-round (GUN LAP) — no idea. Never heard of this. Had LAP and just ... waited for crosses. Last lap. final lap, closing lap—heard all those. GUN LAP, nope. Turns out it's a debut [gently taps "Not All Debuts Are Good" sign] [update: looks like this is a phenomenon in foot racing (i.e. track), not car racing, as I had assumed]
• 5D: Paragraph starter, perhaps (TAB) — me: "... SIR? No, that's a salutation ..." Really wanted a word you'd use at the start of a paragraph, not a key you'd press. The clue's not wrong, just (for me) tough. Ish.
• 58D: Confucian "way" (TAO) — I got a letter last month during my blog fundraiser from a reader who had just one thing to tell me (besides the usual pleasantries) and that was that TAO is not how you spell it. It shouldn't be TAO, it should be DAO. She was very adamant on this point. When I search DAO, all I get are something called (ominously) "Decentralized Autonomous Organizations" (!?!?!). The Tao v. Dao issue apparently arises from two different modes of transliteration, the Wade-Giles (unvoiced "T") and Pinyin (voiced "D"), the latter being, I think, somewhat closer to "correct" pronunciation. But I'm out of my depth here. I've just seen TAO so often (esp. in crosswords) that I haven't given the spelling a second a thought. But apparently this is an issue that can inspire strong feelings. As someone who has strong feelings about SEXER and E-MEET, I'm in no position to judge.

That's all. See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook and Letterboxd]
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